I initially assumed the holiday was a gimmick invented by the doughnut industry, but it turns out this one's legit. It was created in 1938, not by the food industry but by the Chicago Salvation Army, in order to raise funds and honor the volunteers who used to make doughnuts for WWI soldiers.

There is, however, no shortage of food holidays invented by corporations. National Bomb Pop Day is coming up later this month, for example. The entire month of June is apparently Candy Month, and the National Confectioner's Association has this helpful table of candy holidays, including National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day (Jan. 3), Gummi Worm Day (July 15) and National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day (Nov. 7).

ConAgra invented National Tomato Month in 2003 to promote Hunt's ketchup, but a former employee tells me they dropped the campaign because it was too easy for freeloading competitors to jump in and take advantage of the holiday ConAgra had gone to so much trouble to invent.